one year older

I woke up during the night and in front of me stood this beautiful woman.
She had golden hair, white clothes, wings and a wand in her hand.
She told me she was a birthday fairy and that I could make one wish. 'But you have to be quick' she added.

I was totally gob smacked, didn't know if I still was dreaming or not. One wish she said... What did I want... Breakfast in bed, a big cake, an expensive hand bag, money, a prince on a white horse, a kingdom... Oh I just couldn't make up my mind... I mean who thinks clearly in the middle of the night, and under pressure too...

Next thing I hear, is a 'oh no', and right in front of me this beautiful fairy turns into a ugly big nosed witch dressed in black. And she starts laughing. 'Ha ha ha ha ha ha, you were too slow you ugly bitch. Didn't know that your pretty little fairy was cursed did ya?! Now you don't get to make a wish anymore, I will make one for you. Ha ha ha ha ha.' 'Listen carefully she said, I will only say one word, but you will soon come to understand its meaning. 'Grey'. And then she was gone.

Grey I thought, what the hell does she mean. A minute later I was convinced that it all must have been a dream. And I fell asleep again.

I know that's what you think too, that I was dreaming, that it was all imagination. But it wasn't, I know that now. It was true. It is true. The word grey - I know what she meant. This morning I found two grey hairs in my fringe.

So Happy 'Grey' Birthday to me!

one good thing

There is only one good thing about pneumonia.
You get time to read books you have intended to read for a while.

Right now I'm reading a book that my good friend Trita has written.
Full of important and interesting facts.
I know that by the time I finish it, I will feel "enlightened".
And I also know that by the time I finish it, I will be full of admiration for him.

(Although he's just a Turk... He's not really, he's Persian. But if he can call me a Turk, well then I can call him the same back... Not that there's anything wrong with being Turkish, but you know the Persians - they think they are so superior and special... ;-) And so do we - the Swedes... Although we're blond and stupid... But then again, at least we don't smell like Turks, but oops, my boyfriend does and he is Australian... Well, I guess that just shows that no-one is better than anyone else, regardless of country of origin... Anyway...)

But to be honest, I have always admired this man.
Since I first met him actually, when he was still a boy, about to become a man.
Since we sat around that pool in Dubai, talking about this and that and everything, me with a needle in my hand (was creating a Christmas pig on a piece of fabric that as to get sold on a Christmas bazaar at the Swedish/Norwegian church) and he had a book in his hands, probably one that had something to do with international relations...
Since I understood that this Turk was a smart one... Even though I managed to trick him with my not so impressive card tricks... ;-)

poor little me

Fever: 38.5
Sick: Yes, since over 3 weeks back.

Diagnosis: Started off as “the flu”, then became bronchitis, but the antibiotics never helped, and now the new diagnosis is Mycoplasma pneumonia.

Which is a form of pneumonia caused by bacteria of the Mycoplasma genus. Simply put: it is an infection of the lungs by bacteria.

The ones that know say this result in fever, chills, and fatigue.
I say - 'no shit!'

The only good thing is that the ones that know also say, this kind of bacteria commonly affect teenagers and young adults.
I say - 'young is the word!'

What to do: Get better!

what to do?

Nobody is going to stop doing business in cheap China. Why should they... When there's a demand, there will always be a supply...

The West needs to realise that it can't have it both ways. Dirt-cheap products and a clean conscience. There is no such thing. Perhaps you and I need to realise that we can't have dirt-cheap trainers and Chinese factories where the workers get treated like human beings.

Ok, I understand, it's hard to comprehend things like this, and it's easy to hide from. The truth. It's so far away.

But I'm telling you, it is heart breaking to go to these factories. You feel ashamed of where you come from, the colour of your skin and being who you are. The even sadder part is that I base my words in my previous post on factories regarded as "good" factories, because that all I've been too. That's worth writing again. Good factories. And I've been to a few; I've been to clothing factories, a suitcase factory, a make-up factory, a factory where they make slime and beads that stick together with water only, a packaging factory, a pen and pencil factory, a plastic toy factory and a metal toy factory. Probably more factories than that, which I can't remember right now. And the feeling when I walked out of these places was always the same. I felt sick to my stomach.

I’m not saying that people should stop doing business in China. But the business they make in China should be good business. Business where they pay for themselves in every aspect. Business they can be proud of, business with a clean conscience.

Honestly, can anyone with a healthy heart and a sane brain ignore what we are doing here with a clean conscience? I know I can’t…

I want to give you a few words on the way:
Awareness & Knowledge
Caring & Compassion
Respect & Responsibility
Reaction & Action

I believe that if people lived by the words above the world would be a better place.
I believe that you and I can make a difference.

If you and I care.
If you and I show that we care.
If you and I demand a change.
And if you and I are willing to pay for it.
Always chose fair trade products and ecological products when there is a choice.
Cause remember; if there is a demand, there will be a supply.

facts on China - part 2

All for a pair of trainers or a piece of cheap clothing.
That's why we exploit China (and other cheap labour countries)and the earth...

But there is no such thing as cheap clothes. The real price is most obviously not paid by the people who buy the stuff. The real price is paid by the people who make it, and the earth that we at the same time are abusing with pollution etc.

The factories in China might look like nineteenth-century workhouses. Where room after room are filled with hundreds young women and men behind machines and a noise level that makes conversation impossible, or rooms filled with workers spray and hand painting products where the fumes of the paint makes it difficult to breath after just a few minutes and you feel dizzy. Most of the time the workers don't dare to look up from what they are doing, if they do they might get in trouble for not doing what they are supposed to do. They look worn out, badly fed, used up, although most of them are hardly out of their teens. Where they sleep crammed into in dead-aired dormitories, where the workers que up for a feed in a stinking canteen. Peasants straight off the farm working fourteen hours a day, doing double and triple shifts till they drop. Getting $60 a month with one day off.

However, the CEO's of the western world like the profit margins they get out here. And the customers, us, like rock-bottom prices.

reflection Sweden then - China now

In 1900 four out of five inhabitants of Sweden lived in the countryside, and a predominant majority worked in the agricultural sector. The poorest families at the time were those who did not own any land and there were many of them. Far too many were threatened by starvation year in and year out. You could find fields owned and shared by a local community, by the 'people'. But laws changed, the land was needed for the big industrial revolution, and this community property ceased to exist. The poorest became still poorer. And there were many mouths to be fed.

It was under these bleak circumstances that the 'America fever' began to spread. America offered something at this time which was missing amongst the poorest of Sweden - the hope of something better.

At this time the American law stated that anyone who cultivated a tract of land had the right to mark its boundaries and, henceforth, automatic ownership would be established after five years. This meant a free country with cost-free, fertile land for anyone. It must have seemed like a dream for the poor Swedes. Like finding gold! (And yes, some of them did find that too...).

But they had to work hard over there. And as immigrants they were cheep labour. Swedish women were so common in American households that the words "the Swedish maid" became a familiar term for a housekeeper.

In the period between 1868 and 1910 over one million people emigrated from Sweden (out of a population that at the time was a little over five million). Not everyone went to America, but many did. And in the letters they sent home to Sweden they talked about their new "good" life (that I suspect wasn't all that great most of the times)and about buildings that were so high that one could barely see the tops of them!

Do you see the resemblance to today's China?

The land that is taken from the people.
The factories that are built.
Only difference is that when Sweden went through this phase, there were no foreigners gaining from their poverty in the way that we are gaining from the Chinese poverty today. There was not a whole world that wanted to take advantage of Sweden and the Swedes, like the world now wants to take advantage of China and the Chinese people.
And the industrialisation was done in a much slower pace as well as in a much smaller scale. The development in China is crazy and it's enormous.

Chinese people are, with the same desperation as the Swedes back in days I would think, trying to leave China. But they are not that welcome. Not even to HK, and HK is part of China for God's sake.

But they are welcome to the factories. To the grey, and in my eyes, awful industrial cities with millions and millions of people. They are very welcome there. And needed. Because the West and the rich need there goods.

They are often promised a new good life at the factories. And they come there with hopes for something better. For money. For a future. They end up working hard, very hard. And they are cheap labour.

You know what, I'm sure they write home, telling the parents not to worry, that their life is good and that the buildings are so high that you barely can see the tops of them!

facts on China - part 1

In so many ways China is a medieval country. A medieval country with broadband...

Until the mid-nineties all the land in China was owned by the 'People', and then suddenly it wasn't. One day the people woke up and the land their family had farmed for generations was owned by someone else. Some one they didn't know. And that someone usually wanted the people out. Because there were factories to be built and fancy homes for the people that could pay. And in the end the new rich would be getting their mansions. The local politicians would get their cut. And the farmers would just get shafted...

The great China 'gold rush' had started. The economic miracle.

A few fortunate people had discovered that there was a lot of money to make in China. A lot of money. So a few million or so are or will be leaving poverty behind. But at the same time, most people in China will never rise above poverty.

The principal reason the economy keeps growing is because us foreigners want to invest in China. No Western CEO wants to go down as the man who missed China... But how can it be an economic miracle when five hundred million Chinese are living on less than a dollar a day? By the middle of the century China will have a bigger economy than the US. And you know what? They will still have five hundred million people getting on by a dollar a day. It stinks...

The Chinese deserve an affluence that's worth having - clean water and air you can breathe, not empty skyscrapers; rule of law, not back-handers; uncensored news, not broadband porn... They need education, democracy, a free press - not propaganda and Prada bags and traffic jams full of local-made Audis.

super heroes and junk boats

On Saturday night I turned into a super hero. I went from quiet down time in the sun by the pool with a book in my hand to a not so quiet party full of other super heroes (and a few Mexicans...).

Fun times. Especially when some of us decided that it was time to leave the party and hit town... Entering night clubs full of "normal" people in a pretty 'slutty' bat girl costume did turn a few heads and also cause some laughter. But hey, even super heroes like to dance and drink champagne at times...

Anyway, after a night on town I turned into a pumpkin by the pool again, and felt pretty happy about that too.

And then yesterday we rented a junk boat. Spent the whole day out in the archpelago of Hong Kong and truly enjoyed the sun and the ocean. The day was very chilled out and was the perfect end to the long weekend.

mid autumn festival

It's Friday again.
It's mid September.

Mooncakes have been sent and are eaten all over town, because here in Hong Kong it's Mid Autumn Festival. Mooncakes are expensive and considered a delicacy, and the production is labor-intensive so it's popular and common among companies to buy them and give them to their clients as presents. (I don't like them though, so the ones I have received I have passed on to one of my colleagues, which definitely made her smile, so all is good :-))

These traditional Chinese pastries have an imprint on top consisting of Chinese characters and are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin crust. One or more whole salted egg yolks in its center is also common to symbolize the full moon. Hence the name...

So where did the tradition of these special cakes come from?
Well mooncakes were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries in their espionage effort to secretly distribute letters in order to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. The message was either hidden inside the cake and/or printed in the surface of the mooncake as a simple puzzle or mosaic. In order to read the encrypted message, each of the 4 mooncakes packaged together had to be cut into 4 parts each. The 16 pieces of mooncake, then had to be pieced together in such a fashion that the secret messages could be read... Afterwards the pieces of mooncake were eaten to destroy the message.
Smart hey?!

Anyway, Mid Autumn Festival also means public holiday. So we get a long weekend since we've got Monday off. Hurray!

It's beautiful weather outside, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way all weekend.
It's 41 days until I see Kris.
It's soon time to call it a day at the office.
It's time to drink that first Diet Coke of the week.
It's time to let the weekend take me where ever it wants to take me... I'll keep you posted on where...

swedish crayfish party

The thing with traditions is that they are reoccurring.
But when it comes down to really good times, I'm sure not objecting.
So this is how I spent my Friday night:

PS. When I first flicked through the photos I found myself, on a couple of occasions actually, saying to myself: ah... that's right, I remember that now.... Hmm, I didn't know that crayfish could cause temporary memory loss...
PS again. Don't really think I managed to pull off that 'god-I'm-sexy'-look that I apparently was trying to pull off in that last photo... Looks more like I'm suffering from constipation...

surprise surprise

When you live in HK and have a balcony that is not situated on the top floor you're bound to get little surprises dropped/thrown down onto your little otherwise cosy outdoor area. I really do wish it was little pleasant surprises, but it's not.

Cigarette buds are the most common little surprises I find out there, but ever so often I also get to pick up cotton buds, lemon slices and coat hangers. To my list I can also add a condom wrapper and a bag full of garbage. So as you see, it's all very nice little treats that I get.

Last night as I was standing in my bathroom removing my make-up as I heard a "thump", and realised that that sound was probably the landing of a new little surprise for me. And right I was. It was a white plastic bag filled with someones 'sickness'! (If the bags rightful owner meant for it to stay intact as it hit the floor outside my balcony door he/she failed, but if the intention was to make a mess - well then let's call it a success...). Absolutely charming and I hereby declare it as the winner of unwanted surprises...

My first reaction was: whoever created the mess will also have to clean it up. But surprise surprise, no one opened the door when I,somewhat annoyed, pressed the doorbell of the flat that I assumed the bag came from.

Plan B: return the bag to it's rightful owner.
So as far as I know a broken but disgusting bag is now to be found on the door handle of the flat that I still assume it came from.

Who cleaned up the mess? Well surprise surprise again, I did...

evidence

of me being Swedish...
of me being at the Olympics...
of me having blue and yellow hair...

or something...
:-)